PrincessDarkstar

Not to cause an arguement or anything but you used the phrase "I think it's faster" and that begs correction.

I have had quite a bit of practice on the Roman wall and Nova is definately the best form to use (Assuming speed is the goal), and here is why:

I don't really find a need to use any kind of stun because firstly if you are a bit slow they will get in a [Shout] and shrug it off, and secondly because after Eclipse you don't really need anything else since you wont take much damage and can heal it up afterwards anyway.

I use a recharge build too (Perma-Hasten) and Unchain Essence is up every ~60 seconds (Or would be if I had it) and there is no way I would be able to use that on anything other than 1 group in 3 (At most), plus the KB will scatter the mobs to prevent you making the best use of AoE, and might even knock a few over the side.

The way I do it is to target the Surgeon and fly up to to furthest away roman and open with Emination, then Detonation and maybe a single target attack if I still need to finish the Surgeon (Depends if he heals himself just before or just after my first attack). Then I would back up and AoE until the group is dead, before dropping to human for a pet.

I can't think there is any way a Warshade could be faster without using Nova (Accounting for slotting of course), because after Eclipse it is all about damage, and Nova causes the most damage outside of the odd few powers like Unchain Essence that cannot be used every spawn.

I worked it out somewhere in another thread but I am pretty sure that without accounting for misses it only takes ~12 seconds to clear up to 15 minions and 1 lt (The AoE cap being 16). The Roman groups usually only have 1 lt and 9 minions so almost always fall in that time, you can add 3 seconds on to that if they are +1's or +2's, but again you will be taking time off that considering the pets. After the mob is down you can add in a few seconds for Stygian Circle, back to Nova and move on.

I know those times seem a bit fast, but I summon a pet every 3 spawns on average and that is including stopping to target a Surgeon and line up (I hardly race along at farming speed), and the pets recharge every ~65 seconds so it does work out about that.

Edit: If you can use Unchain Essence 2 out of every 3 mobs that sounds like you are taking ~40 seconds to kill a group, which is about half the speed it can be done in Nova.
Pre-i13 (I think it was 13?) I had Black Dwarf, but slotted it mainly for recharge bonus' and tanking, as soon as Black Dwarf Mire was changed I did a respec to get more slots in it and have never looked back, Black Dwarf Mire is the new PSW

I don't normally like fancy binds like some of you use, but this one would be interesting (Minus Inky Aspect which I don't use), especially now I will be using Gravatic Emination a lot more with i16.

I agree that makes sense from the point of view of a reformed blapper (Which I think it was aimed at), but I also think the fact that you are immediately in a position to use a stun or a heal gives human form a slight survivability advantage over tri-form.

Your build sounds very similar to mine.

I think the ideal tactics involve being careful what you aggro (I did a +0 test yesterday and basically aggroed whole rooms of death accidentally - though I did live!), using Gravatic Emination and Unchain Essence to buy you time, using Sunless Mire to boost damage, using Eclipse as if your life depended on it (And it does!) and not being afraid to drop for Stygian Circle as often as you feel the need.

In a team I hardly ever have to drop to heal, which is the biggest tactical difference I am noticing. If I drop to human every 30 mseconds for Sunless Mire then I would also use Gravatic Emination and Stygian Circle for good measure.

There certainly won't be the 'flying fortress of purple doom' feeling like you get in teams, but I have found it doable so far and it should scale up easily enough.

I am also making sure I get enough practice against +0's, then working my way up rather than just jumping in the deep end, since I have absolutely no practice with using fillers to increase mob sizes.

Edit: It does actually make me wonder how a human only build would compare since you wouldn't be losing the time switching forms, but I think with perma-Sunless Mire then Nova form will probably just outdamage human form as long as you can hold off and only heal every 30 seconds, if you are taking more damage than that then a human only build may actually pull ahead in DPS terms.

Once I get more used to the way I am having to play against these mob sizes I will look into a comparison. It will probably be closer than I thought - though the mobs I was facing probably weren't ideal since they did quite a bit of debuffing (The radioactive clockwork from the Praetorian arc).

I think the only real problem with Nova is the fact that you are really squishy. With the right support (And pvp is meant for teaming) then Nova is the best form to be in, but without support I find I get killed far to much.

But I have only been to RV.

That wasn't taking the numbers from a complete build, it was just a quick build where I edited hasten to give 175% recharge instead of 70% and slotted the attacks I was interested in as best I could for damage and recharge. (I think they were 3 damage IO's, 2 damage procs and 1 recharge IO each, with the plan of having enough global accuracy to compensate)

So that DPS is with pretty much 'perfect' slotting and would require the rest of the build to be 'filler' so you could slot those powers without regard to set bonus' etc.

My actual build just breaks the 100dps mark in Nova I think.

I think human form (With a badly slotted Dwarf - Just the form and the heal, dont slot the attacks) would be the best option in PvP because you get instant access to the self heals, then you can switch to dwarf and use that heal as an emergency heal too.

Aside from PvP I am not sure which route to recommend as to which forms to take. The only thing I would say is when levelling up take Nova at 6 and dedicate plenty of slots to it. At 20 or after that you can use your second build and basically ignore Nova and slot dwarf up. Once you have experience of both forms when you get a bit higher (I would say late 30's) then respec one of those builds into human only, and slot human heavily.

That way by the time you hit 50 you will have experience with all the forms (And have seen that well slotted so know exactly what they can do) and you can make a more informed choice.

If you tried to go tri-form too early you would only see the forms partly slotted so may be un-impressed, equally if you went human only too early you wouldnt have enough powers or slots and might also be unimpressed.

I am still to chicken to do that lol

Fly/Teleport aren't really stackable (But I assume you know that) so that is slightly different. Plus leadership is the type of thing that you either have or don't, so having access to both makes sense.

The other thing is that I really like the pool lockouts. They add a flavour to the AT's that no others have, and teleport is a Warshade thing so doesn't really fit into Peacebringers.

Never took it so never knew that! Sounds like that would be very nice

I wouldn't know where to find Black Scorpion, but I fought those radiation robots last night on the test server (8 man spawns) and they never debuffed my resistances. Though thinking about it that may be because a maxed out Eclipse starts me off at ~200%.

I haven't used the AE but I would expect that to be the best place to fight AV's, especially because you can use minions that wouldn't die to Sunless Mire (dark/regen scrappers?).

Nightstar has the massive s/l resistances, so I would think Black Swan is the negative resisting one, she is definately always with those bloody shadows!

Edit: Bobcat was the one recommended to me, dont know her stats though.

You have that just about right.

Nova really helps in the lower levels and knowing you are going to respec allows you to fully slot it and get the best out of it, then when you drop it at 22 you can have the human attacks fully slotted and never have the hassle of too many poorly slotted attacks like many Khelds do by trying to tri-form too quickly.

Just be prepared for die a bit for a few levels after you move to human only as going from nova to human is pretty much like playing another AT, and takes some getting used to, but not too much

I thought it was summed up when someone said it was because the eipc pools are actually built into the primary and secondary.

Khelds get more power choices than any other AT, so don't really need any extra choices.

Agreed, that is a very good summary

The only thing I would add is that PB's get a traditional non-permable god-mode with a crash (Light Form), but Warshades get a permable god-mode that in typical fashion requires mobs around you (So isn't that good against a single target), but has no crash as a result (Eclipse).

Eclipse is also a clicky so transfers over to forms, but Light Form doesn't.

That is another significant difference at high level.